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WGC ACCENTURE MATCH PLAY CHAMPIONSHIPFebruary 21, 2014Jim FurykMARANA, ARIZONA LAURA NEAL: Like to welcome Jim Furyk to the interview room. You advanced to the quarter finals for the first time. You were 3‑down through 6. Talk about how you turned the match around today. JIM FURYK: It was really the third day in a row. I was 2 down both my Wednesday and Thursday matches early and then today found myself 3‑down through 6. I think I drew from the experiences the last couple of days, and really told myself I'd been in this position before and I was able to dig my way out so just to stay patient to try to put the ball in play and then switch the momentum as best I could. Harris made a bogey on 7. It was nice to get a hole back really quick and kind of get that under my‑‑ a little bit more under control. And we both hit great wedges into 8. I kind of got some momentum going to my game there. And played well on the back nine. He made a couple of bogeys, which helped me‑‑ maybe it was only one bogey, now that I think about it. But that helped me win a hole. And then I fired off a couple of birdies. It was kind of a tough match. He played real well early on and I played real well, and chipped in on 18, that's what gave me the 1‑up victory. Q. Players say it feels like a Sunday today. Did you feel like that on the back nine the way you were playing? JIM FURYK: A little bit. It's nice to hear the U of A chants. 13 always gets a little rowdy up by the green. But, yeah, I think the support has been good this week. And I'm expecting even more on the weekend. Down to eight players tomorrow and I've never advanced past the third round. So it's nice to be in this position. I haven't made it to the third round that often. It's nice to get to the last eight and get to the weekend and see what happens. Q. I know you've had mixed results here. Any difference in the strategy this time around? JIM FURYK: A little bit. I've been talking kind of to the television media about that. My dad's kind of watched me for years at this golf course. I think at the first look a lot of players look at this golf course and consider it a bomber's paradise. There's a lot of corners, right off the bat No. 2, No. 5, No.7, there's a lot of places, 8, there's bunkers where you have to carry the ball off the tee. And there's a couple of places on certain positions I can't get over those bunkers. The greens, they have a lot of movement on them, there's a lot going on. If you want to get to the tough pins you have to bring the ball in high and soft. In the past it's forced me to hit the ball pretty hard and pretty high, maybe getting out of my game plan a little bit and out of my style. And I've looked back, Luke Donald has won here, Matt Kuchar has won here, they're certainly not short players, but not bombers by any means, they're very controlled players. And my dad really stressed to me this week to really not change my game plan, not change my style, and just play the golf course the way I usually would. Let's forget about the match play part of it and go attack the golf course the way you normally would. Don't try to change your style. And I think that's really helped. It's eliminated some mistakes, and also allowed me to make some more birdies. Q. If I'm not mistaken, this is your second tournament this year? JIM FURYK: Third. I played the last two. Q. After a pretty extended break. You've got to feel pretty good about the way you played? JIM FURYK: Yeah, I feel I'm back in the flow now. The first couple of weeks definitely had some rust. But I was happy with the shots I was hitting. I felt like the first week I probably could have made some better decisions, scored better in spots. Last week came down to probably knocking in some more putts on the weekend. But I feel good about my game. Three weeks of working hard and getting back in the flow. For me, I can work as hard as I want at home, but a week on Tour I learn more about my game than a month sitting at home and playing at my home club. When you really put it under Tour conditions, the greens getting firmer and the pins getting tucked, put a little pressure on yourself and have to perform, you learn a lot more where your game is. And I think it's easier to improve then, as well, because your focus is so much sharper. Q. The chip in on 16, did you think you were going to make it? JIM FURYK: You know, I was really just trying to run it down close. It wasn't one of those you could be aggressive and try to knock it in. Like 14 I was trying to chip it in and I caught a little piece of the hole. But on 16 I had a little quick putt down to the ridge and the over seeded grass here is a little sticky, if you don't accelerate through, it kind of grabs the club. And I also felt like I hit a couple of shots out of the short cut that had a lot of spin on them. So I was expecting that second shot to kind of come out and check and then trickle over that ridge. It did not. It did not come out with the spin I expected. It was a little firm, that ball probably would have rolled a good ten feet by. And I was fortunate that it hit the pin and went in. I'm looking at a 1‑up lead or if it misses the pin I've got a 10‑footer to stay halve in the match. It was a good break and I felt like Harris and I‑‑ he might have made a couple of mistakes late and I made a couple of mistakes early. But I think we both played really well. The difference in the match really came down to that one good break with the ball going in. LAURA NEAL: Can you give us comments about your next matchup with Rickie Fowler? JIM FURYK: Tough match. He must have beat Sergio. Tough matchup. He's an aggressive player. Ricky and I are friends. I was his partner in his first Ryder Cup at the K Club. We paired up together. And I saw a real fearless guy, not a lot bothers him. He was a great partner there. And he'll be a tough match tomorrow. There's no easy matches tomorrow. LAURA NEAL: That's true. Thanks and good luck tomorrow. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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